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Blue Wahoos Punch Ticket To Playoffs With Ninth-Inning Comeback
September 7, 2026
The Blue Wahoos battled through a challenging season to fittingly celebrate reaching the playoffs in astonishing fashion.
Trailing 5-2 and down to their final at-bat with no one on base in the ninth inning, the Blue Wahoos incredibly blasted three homers in a five-run, two-out rally to pull off an amazing 7-5 victory Sunday night against the Columbus Clingstones that clinched the South League South Division second-half race.
What a way for the Blue Wahoos to return to the playoffs for the first time in three years.
It will be their eighth post-season trip in the 14-year history of the franchise. The Blue Wahoos, two-time league champions, have done it with three different affiliations. This is the third in six years as the Miami Marlins affiliate.
As the schedule fate turned out, the Blue Wahoos will finish their regular-season schedule at home this week with six games against the Biloxi Shuckers, beginning on Tuesday.
The teams will then turn around and play Game 1 of their best-of-three South Division series on September 15 in Pensacola.
How this unfolded befit the way the Blue Wahoos battled through a season with a slow start, injuries, late-season call-ups and other forms of adversity.
They began the second leg of a two-week road trip by dropping the first three games of this series to the Clingstones, cutting their first-place lead in half, but won an extra-inning game Friday, then swept the weekend to seal the division.
They entered Sunday with a 6.5 game lead, so it figured to happen soon, but not in this disbelieving way.
Cristian Hernández began the improbable rally with a solo homer to center field as the last hope in the ninth. Ethan O’Donnell kept the rally alive with a single. Colby Shade, who hit a solo homer in the eighth inning, blasted game-tying two-run bomb over the left field wall.
Ryan Ingoffo then followed by doubling down the right field line. On a two-strike pitch, Jay Beshears went opposite field to right with a go-ahead, two-run homer to complete the stunning feat.
Reliever Mason Vinyard earned the save in the bottom of the ninth. The Blue Wahoos did not jump into an infield celebration. Playing on the road, mindful of the situation, they were subdued before heading to their dugout.
This is the earliest the Blue Wahoos have clinched a playoff spot in franchise history with a full week of games remaining.
The Blue Wahoos gave up three runs in the first inning, then got excellent pitching and defense from that point, hit a pair of homers to cut the lead to 3-2. Columbus answered with two homers to take a 5-2 lead in the ninth.
But the Blue Wahoos were not done.
It’s only the second time the Blue Wahoos have won the second-half division to reach postseason.
Their first playoff trip in 2015 came by winning the second half race on the second-to-last game of the season. Since then, they won the first half division race four times, and twice qualified as the wild card team with the second-best record behind the full season winner.
The Wahoos will host the Biloxi Shuckers Tuesday through Sunday.
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